Anthology of Ideas

The following was sent to me by a friend, the original source is unknown, and google wasn’t much of a help. The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as ‘Euro-English’.

Haven’t heard of it? National Punctuation Day honors and celebrates “…the lowly comma,correctly used quotes and other proper uses of periods, semicolons and the ever-mysterious [and ignored] ellipsis.” Want to know more? There exists a wealth of information on the web about punctuation in general—and of course you are just dying to learn about it; if you just want to know about the day itself, it has its own website with lots of information and history: here.

A long time ago I found the following poem, and I believe it is the best indicator that the English language needs to be reworked. The first poem is a modern reincarnation of “The Chaos” (1922) by G. Nolst Trenite, a.k.a. “Charivarius” (1870-1946). The original (which you can read below this one) was a little more Shakespearean. Dearest creature in creation, Study English pronunciation. I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.

I think this selection of words shows evidences the many ways words enter into the English vocabulary. Itinerary: Itinerary began as the word itinerarium from Latin which means “account of a journey”. Mouse: Mouse began as the Greek word m?s it the evolved over time to be (in chronological order) m?s in Latin, maus in German, m?s in Old English, then finally as mous in Middle English. This word is interesting for two reasons the first is that it has a rather long etymology and the second is that English first borrowed the word directly from Latin and then later borrowed it in a different form from the Germans.

The following was sent to me by a friend, the original source is unknown, and google wasn’t much of a help. The European Commission has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the European Union rather than German, which was the other possibility. As part of the negotiations, the British Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5- year phase-in plan that would become known as ‘Euro-English’.

Haven’t heard of it? National Punctuation Day honors and celebrates “…the lowly comma,correctly used quotes and other proper uses of periods, semicolons and the ever-mysterious [and ignored] ellipsis.” Want to know more? There exists a wealth of information on the web about punctuation in general—and of course you are just dying to learn about it; if you just want to know about the day itself, it has its own website with lots of information and history: here.

A long time ago I found the following poem, and I believe it is the best indicator that the English language needs to be reworked. The first poem is a modern reincarnation of “The Chaos” (1922) by G. Nolst Trenite, a.k.a. “Charivarius” (1870-1946). The original (which you can read below this one) was a little more Shakespearean. Dearest creature in creation, Study English pronunciation. I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse.

I think this selection of words shows evidences the many ways words enter into the English vocabulary. Itinerary: Itinerary began as the word itinerarium from Latin which means “account of a journey”. Mouse: Mouse began as the Greek word m?s it the evolved over time to be (in chronological order) m?s in Latin, maus in German, m?s in Old English, then finally as mous in Middle English. This word is interesting for two reasons the first is that it has a rather long etymology and the second is that English first borrowed the word directly from Latin and then later borrowed it in a different form from the Germans.